A man has been killed by lightning atop an Australian mountain

A man has died and a woman injured after they were struck by lightning on top of Mt Warning, near the Queensland/New South Wales border overnight.

It’s believed the pair camped on the summit of the 1,156-metre mountain, the remnant plug of a long extinct volcano, overnight.

Emergency services were alerted about 4.50am on Tuesday that at least two people had been injured by lightning and a rescue effort up the steep 4.4km trek to the top of the mountain is now underway, involving police, ambulance officer and the SES.

Rescuers on the summit confirmed a man died and a woman is being treated for neck and head injuries The ages and nationality of the couple are not yet confirmed.

Mt Warning, known as Wollumbin (cloud gatherer) in the Bundjalung dialect, is sacred to the local Aboriginal people, who ask people not to climb the mountain. It is a national park and is part of a World Heritage listed series of parks known as the caldera rim.

The top of the mountain has a distinctive rocky plug above the treeline with a viewing platform on top.